Agile Leadership and Self-organization

The role of leaders and managers has changed from the models we got used to in "traditional" project management, and so has the way development teams work to generate business value.

Self-organization is an elusive management concept (how can we organize something that is supposed to organize itself?) which has profound business and organizational implications.

It taps into the collective intelligence of the team, so that people can come up with better solutions in a shorter time; it distributes control, to avoid decisional bottlenecks and let the project move faster; it relies on the socio-relational skills of the team, but it also relies on transparency, clear processes and shared goals to define the boundaries of delegation; and the greater autonomy promotes engagement and team learning.

Agile leaders who really understand these dynamics will take care of facilitating the value stream (represented by the development teams) by providing the necessary support and resources; they will provide guidance and a shared goal by sharing the "why"and the "what", with more trust and less control on "how" that goal should be achieved; and they will be able to create an ecosystem where the business advantage of effective self-organization can manifest.

Effective self-organization changes the leader/team dynamics and the teammate/teammate ones. To reap the full benefits of Agile and Lean you need to understand these subtle dynamics and be able to implement them effectively in your organization.

Outcomes

Increase the productivity of your teams by greater participation and simpler decision-making processes

Create a learning environment where knowledge is shared, and reduce the risk of operational bottlenecks

Promote alignment to the organization’s business goals and get more focus on the most valuable activities